Disclaimers: I don't
own X-Men, X-Men: Evolution, Marvel, etc. etc.
Besides I have no money that they could sue me for.
(Italics denote
personal thoughts, //…// indicates telepathic communication.)
WARNING: This is
SLASH! Please don't flame me.
By the by, I have no
dislike for Kitty, so don't think I hate her just because of this story.
"Hey, Scott," Kurt Wagner said,
sitting down next to Scott Summers in the school courtyard.
"Hey, Kurt,
how's it going?" Scott responded.
"Pretty
okay, I suppose."
"Something
wrong?" Kurt looked really upset, and
Scott hated to see that.
"I
dunno. I need to talk to you about
something."
Scott's
heart started to race. "What is
it?" Could it be?
"Um, I kind
of…"
"Kind of
what?"
"I kind of
really…like…" Kurt got a little bit
fidgety.
"Who?" Scott felt like his head would explode with
the anticipation.
"Kitty."
"Oh." He nearly kicked himself for sounding so
openly disappointed. Kurt, however,
didn't seem to notice.
"I was
wondering if you could help me figure out how to ask her out on a date."
"Uh, sure,
I guess. I'm not really good at this
stuff, though."
"But you
have Jean."
"Well, sort
of…We're not actually going out or anything.
I think of it more as a really good friendship."
"But she
really likes you."
"I
know." Scott stared at the school for a
moment, thinking about how much easier it would be to stick with Jean instead of
trying to chase after something he could never have.
"Hello in
there. Is anybody home?"
"Oh, yeah,
sorry. Anyway, about this Kitty thing…"
"What are
they, like, talking about over there Jean?" Kitty asked, motioning toward Kurt
and Scott on the other side of the schoolyard.
"I don't
know," Jean responded.
"But can't
you just peek into their thoughts and find out?" Rogue hinted.
"No, that's
like eavesdropping on a private conversation."
"And your point is?" Evan
added, stealing Rogue's "moo juice".
The Southern girl slapped his hand and took back her drink.
"My point
is, I don't feel comfortable doing that.
What if they're talking about something I really don't want to know
about?"
"Oh, I get
your point. Can I have your drink?"
"Sure, go
ahead." Jean pushed the small milk
carton towards the boy who eagerly grabbed it and chugged it.
"You're the
weirdest person I know," Kitty flirtatiously said to the boy.
Jean shook
her head as the conversation went on next to her. She turned her attention back to Scott and Kurt. Now I'm curious, though. What are they talking about?
That
evening, back at the mansion, the kids were sitting around watching TV, waiting
for something exciting to possibly happen.
Kurt had managed to squeeze onto the couch between Scott and Kitty and
was trying unsuccessfully to summon enough courage to flirt with her.
Scott
enjoyed the closeness to Kurt, but he felt downhearted to know that Kurt had
only chosen that spot because Kitty was there.
He had half a mind to get up and sit somewhere else, but the other half
told him to stay close to that adorable blue fuzz ball. Suddenly, he felt Kurt move slightly next to
him as the boy turned a little more toward Kitty. Well, as long as he'll be happy. Then, the flirting began.
Kurt was
much better at it than he had led Scott to believe. It seemed he had Kitty swooning in a matter of an hour or
less. Scott just wished that Kurt had
been flirting with him instead of that fickle girl. Earlier that day, she had been all over Evan, but now, it was
like Evan didn't exist.
Scott
looked up to see Jean staring at him with a strange look on her face. //Is there something wrong?// she sent to
him.
//No, it's
nothing. Don't worry about it.// he
thought in response.
//If you
want to talk, you know where to find me.//
//It's
nothing, okay?// Scott could tell he
was becoming visibly angry, so he stood up and said good night to his
friends. He slammed the door shut to
his room and crashed onto his bed.
After what seemed like an eternity, he heard the other kids coming down
the hallway. After five doors slammed,
he rose from the bed and searched for his pajamas.
There was a
knock at the door a moment after he had successfully donned his PJs. He answered it and was slightly perturbed to
find a very pleased-looking Kurt standing at the door. "Can I come in?" he said in a whisper.
"Sure,"
Scott stepped aside and allowed the little blue man walk past him. When he looked again at Kurt's very pleasant
and very happy face, he felt even more depressed. "Lemme guess, you asked her out?"
"Yes, I
did, and she said yes! Can you believe
it?"
"No, no I
can't," Scott responded in mock interest.
"Yeah,
we're going out tomorrow night."
"Well, have
fun. I'll see you tomorrow
morning." He suddenly shooed the little
fur ball out into the hallway and shut the door behind him. He walked slowly toward the bed and got in,
not sleeping a wink that night.
Kurt
entered his bedroom after Scott kicked him out into the hallway. While he lay there waiting for sleep to
come, he replayed the day's events in slow motion in his mind and started to
notice something about Scott. All day,
the team leader had seemed to be extremely disappointed in something.
There was
his tone of voice when Kurt first told him about his crush on Kitty. Then there were the angry looks toward the
girl on the way home. Then there was
the way he stormed off before his favorite TV show was over, and the way he
seemed so uninterested when Kurt told him the good news.
"What is up
with that guy?" he whispered to himself.
Then, he thought back farther to all the times he'd been around Scott
and realized that Scott acted differently around him than he did around the
others. Not different in a way that
suggested that Cyclops hated him, but still different.
Then he
remembered the time in Scott's car when the motorcycle was falling towards them
and how Scott had suddenly grabbed hold of him. He had never given it a second thought before because he had
always thought about it being a matter of teleport and live, stay and die. But there was something strange about the
way that Scott grabbed hold of him. And
there was something strange about the way he had held him in return. What was even stranger was the way they
continued to hold onto each other long after they had teleported safely away.
Was Kitty
really who he was after? Or was she
just a way to prove to himself that he didn't like Scott in the "more than
friends" sense. I don't like
Scott. What am I thinking? That's such a silly notion. And he doesn't like me, either. You're just tired, Wagner. Go to sleep.
The next
evening, Kurt spent an enormous amount of time spiffing up in his bathroom, as
did Kitty. Evan was moping in the
living room because of his losing Kitty's attention, and Scott knew that Kurt
would join the other boy very soon.
Rogue was God knows where, and Jean was sitting in the chair across the
room from Scott, still staring at him with that funny look.
Finally,
she got up and approached him. "Are you
sure there's nothing bothering you?"
"No, but I
don't really want to talk about it." He
got up from his seat, and walked down to his room. He passed by Kurt, who quickly ducked back into his room when the
older boy walked by. Scott didn't
notice the gesture and crashed on his bed again.
This time,
however, Jean didn't let him get off that easily. She walked into his room and carefully shut the door behind
her. "They're gone," she said.
"You know,
you could have knocked," he said, ignoring her comment.
"Look, I
know what's going on with you."
"Well
aren't you lucky."
"There's no
need to get snappish with me. I've not
done anything wrong. I understand that
you don't necessarily like me the way I like you, and I can live with that. However, I will not have you moping around
this house like Evan just because you think the person you could be falling in
love with doesn't like you in return."
Scott sat
up on the edge of the bed. "What do you
mean, 'think'? I know he doesn't like
me that way. He couldn't possibly. He likes girls, not guys. He's not a freak like me."
"Don't you
ever say that again! You are not a
freak! You of all people should
understand that some people are different from others. You're a member of the X-Men, for God's
sake!"
"It doesn't
matter if you or I don't think I'm a freak.
He would if he found out what I feel."
"No, he
wouldn't, Scott. Every day when he
looks in the mirror, he sees that he looks completely different from everyone
else. He would never think of you as a
freak. Do you understand me? Just because a person thinks, looks, or
feels differently, doesn't mean they're a freak, so don't think that, okay?"
"I
don't. I just know he would completely
spaz out."
"No, he
wouldn't." She looked right into his eyes. "Trust me."
A sudden
grasp of what Jean was getting at came over Scott. "I trust you."
"Good. They'll be home at eleven." With that, she left the room, shutting the
door behind her. Scott looked at the
clock, which read 8:15 PM. Then he
waited.
"Well, I
really had fun," Kitty said, as they walked up to the front door.
"Yeah, me
too," Kurt replied solemnly.
"Something
wrong?"
"Well, it's
just that…"
"Just that
what?"
Kurt looked
directly into Kitty's eyes. "I don't
think that it would work out between us."
"Oh, I
understand. It's okay." The girl didn't seem even remotely
perturbed.
"Well, I
guess we should go inside then." He
opened the door for her and closed it behind him after he entered. "Goodnight, Kitty."
"Goodnight,
Kurt." Kitty walked down the corridor
to her room. Not a bit of the bounce
was gone from her step. The "break-up"
had not affected her in the least.
"No
'goodnight kiss'?" a voice asked behind Kurt.
He spun around to see that the voice had come from a very tired-looking
Scott Summers.
"Nope,"
Kurt responded.
"Didn't
work out?"
"No, I
guess not."
"Evan
should be happy about that."
"Yeah, he
probably will be."
"Kurt, I
wanted to apologize for how weird I've been acting the past couple of
days. I didn't mean to."
"It's
okay. I understand why."
"How? Did Jean tell you?"
"No, I
figured it out last night."
"Oh." Scott paused a moment and looked at Kurt's
face in the moonlight. "I just wanted
to make sure you wouldn't be uncomfortable around me now that you know."
"Why would
I?"
"Huh?"
"Scott, I
feel the same way you do. That's
another thing I realized last night. I
don't know why it took so long to figure out, but I do like you."
"You do?"
"Yeah."
"I suddenly
feel like I'm on a soap opera."
"Except
that soap operas don't always work out as well as this one has." With that, Kurt wrapped his arms around the
taller boy and held him in a long, "more than friendly" embrace.
After a few
moments had passed with Scott returning the hug, he backed away. "Well, we should probably catch some
Zs. Tomorrow's Saturday, and that means
training day."
"Man, do we
have to?"
"Yep,
Professor X's orders that we have one Saturday each month devoted to training
exercises."
"No, I
meant do we have to go to sleep already?"
Scott looked confused. "Can't we
go for a walk outside? The stars are
really bright tonight."
"Sure, I
guess." As Scott opened the door, Kurt
slipped one arm around his waist and leaned his head against his shoulder, and
they walked out into the crisp night air on their first date.
